Compound boot



July 24, 1962 L. R. MCEACHERN 3,045,929

COMPOUND BOOT Filed Feb. 4, 1959 INVENTOR. 40 YO e. MACH2AI nite KMEEZQ Patented July 24, 1962 3,045,929 COMPOUND 890T Loyd R. McEachern, Greenville, 8.43., assignor to The American MonoRail Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 2 corporation of Ohio Filed Feb. 4, 1959, Ser. No. 791,105 12 Claims. (Cl. 239566) This invention relates to the textile cleaning art and is particularly concerned with a new boot for use with apparatus for removing lint from textile machines and collecting such lint.

Heretofore, tubes have been used to conduct streams of air traveling at high velocity downwardly and toward textile machines where lint tends to accumulate. Although such tubes have been used for quite some time, no one prior to the present invention has provided a compound tube or boot which could be used to remove, for simultaneously dislodging accumulations of lint and collecting lint,

The present invention aims to provide a compound tube or boot through which an air stream may be forcibly propelled at a velocity suificiently high to remove lint from textile machines and through which another air stream may be induced by a partial vacuumto flow in the opposite direction and to collect and carry lint to a lint chamber, and which will be shape maintaining and yet sufficiently flexible to bend and thereby to pass over any obstruction it may encounter while being moved along a textile machine.

The present invention will be better understood by those skilled in the art from the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic, fragmentary end elevational view of a spinning machine and one form of boot embodying the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the boot of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of a modified form of boot embodying the present invention;

FIGURE 5 is an elevational view of another modified form of the invention; and

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention.

In FIGURE 1, one form of boot embodying the present invention is shown disposed in operative position relative to a spinning machine indicated at 1. This boot may be considered as consisting of a tube having a partition wall extending lengthwise therein and dividing the interior thereof into two passages, one to be connected to the outlet from a fan chamber and the other to be connected to the suction inlet of that chamber, such for example as is illustrated in my co-pending application Serial No. 791,- 108, filed February 4, 1959.

The boot of FIGURES 1 to 3 includes a rectangular structure consisting of end walls 2 and 3, inner side wall 4, outer side wall 5 and partition 6 dividing the interior of the tube into high pressure passage 7 to receive high velocity air from the fan chamber and low pressure passage 8 to conduct air under the influence of a partial vacuum existing at the fan inlet.

The inner side wall 4 is provided with vertically spaced openings through which streams of air may contact various parts of the machines alongside of which the boots are being moved by the blower device from which they are suspended. Preferably, nozzles 10 are adjustably and removably secured in holes in the openings in wall 4 for ready assembly and disassembly and also ready adjustment to direct streams of air flowing therethrough in different directions and against different parts of the textile machine. This nozzle construction is disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 788,672, filed January 23, 1959, now Patent No. 2,946,521 issued July 26, 1960. Preferably, each nozzle 16 is provided with an annular groove near one end defined by outwardly projecting ribs. The nozzle is assembled in the opening in inner wall 4 with the wall 4 adjacent to the opening extending into the groove and being held therein by concentric resilient O-rings which are under sufficient tension to prevent the nozzle from being dislodged from its assembled position under ordinary usage. The nozzle 10 extends at an angle to the vertical inner side 4 of the boot, and as a result, it may direct air in different directions and against different parts of the machine depending on the adjustment of the nozzle in the boot. Also preferably, these nozzles are made of various diameters so that the volume of the air streams passing through them may be varied in accordance with the amount of lint to be removed or upon the difiiculty of removing the lint from certain places.

A pocket indicated at 14 is formed along the end wall I 2 by an adjacent wall 15. A similar pocket 14 may also be formed along the partition if desired, but under some conditions this pocket may not be required. When a thin slat 16 of bendable material such as plastic, wood or the like is placed in pocket 14, the boot may bend at right angles to wall 2 but may bend little, at most, at right angles to wall 4. Since the outer surface of wall 2. is smooth, it will not catch on a truck with which it may come into contact in the aisle between rows of machines but will bend and pass over the top of the truck. The lower end of passage '7 is closed by a bottom wall 17.

Wall 3 extends from the upper end of the boot down below the lower end wall 17 of the part of the boot defining passage 7 and partition 6 is also extended below end wall 17 so that the lower end of walls 3 and 6 are in close proximity to the floor of the textile machine room. Walls 6 and 3 define the suction passage 8 which is open at both ends,

Since the suction in passage 8 will tend to collapse the wall 3, it may be necessary to stifien that. wall sutficiently to prevent such collapse. Any suitable stiffening means may be employed, for example skeleton like stilfener may enclose more or less of wall 3 and be secured thereto and to wall 6. Preferably stiffener 20 has a smooth portion 21 and legs 22 extending therefrom to wall 6. When portion 21 engages an obstruction it will have no tendency to catch thereon. Part 20 should be made of material which is rigid enough to prevent collapse of wall 3 and sufficiently flexible to permit bending when the boot engages an obstruction, such as a truck in the aisle. The stiffener 20 may have one or more arms 22 extending to and connected to walls 4 and 5 or to wall 6. It will be understood that if desired a collapse preventer similar to stiffener 20 may be placed in passage 8.

When a collapse-preventer, such as 20, is employed, it may be unnecessary or undesirable to use a strip in pocket 15 along wall 6.

In FIGURE 4 is shown a modified form of the present invention. In this figure the boot comprises a high pressure tube 23 quite like the tube which defines passage 7 of FIGURES l and 2 and a separately formed suction tube 24 connected to either of the leading or trailing end walls of that tube. High velocity air passage 25 is defined by leading and trailing end walls 26 and 27 and inner and outer side Walls 28 and 29 with nozzles 10 in the inner side wall. Suction tube 24 is preferably made resistant to collapse, as by a coil spring embedded therein as indicated by the convolutions 32, and this tube is attached to an end wall 26 or 27 of the high pressure tube in any suitable manner, for example as by rivets 33. Since the rough surface 31 of tube 24 might catch on the obstruction, such as a truck in the aisle, a smooth guard 34 is preferably attached thereto and extends from a point above the highest point which might engage an obstruction down substantially to the bottom of the tube which is adjacent to the floor. The suction tube and its guard 34 should be sufficiently flexible and bendable to be bent and to pass over an obstruction when either tube is engaged therewith. Slat 16 like those shown in FIGURE 3 may be used in both end walls 26 and 27 or if desired, one of these slats may be omitted preferably the one adjacent to suction tube 24.

The boot shown in FIGURE comprises a tube similar to the high pressure tubes of FIGURES 1 and 3, and a low pressure tube 41 which, preferably, is formed integrally with, but may be formed separately from, and then connected to, the high pressure tube 40. Tube has nozzles like nozzles 10 of FIGURE 1. The low pressure tube is provided with inlets in the form of branches 42 and 43 which are vertically spaced and positioned in the vicinity of certain of the vertically spaced nozzles of the high pressure tube. Inlet 42 is shown as being positioned adjacent to the creel of a spinning machine and near to the upper nozzles of the high pressure tube through which air is blown to remove lint from the creel. The lower inlets 43 are adjacent to the drawing rolls of the spinning machine and in the vicinity of the nozzles of the high presure tube which direct air toward the draw ing rolls. Low pressure tube 41 has an inlet opening 44 at its lower end in the vicinity of the lowermost nozzles from the high pressure tube.

In FIGURE 6, the low pressure tube 50, which may be quite like tube 31 of FIGURE 4, extends lengthwise within the high pressure tube 51, which may be like tube 23 of FIGURE 4. Nozzles 10 like those in FIGURES 1 and 4 serve as outlets for air streams from tube 51. Tube extends through the bottom wall 52 of tube 51 and may be attached to tube 51 near its upper end, if desired. One or more slats like 16 of FIGURES 1 and 4 may be used.

It will be understood that compound tubes or boots embodying the present invention have a passage through which a stream of high velocity air may flow and be directed at various vertically spaced places to blow lint off a textile machine and another passage which has one or more inlets through which air may be drawn to collect lint which has blown off the textile machine by the air issuing from the nozzles, including lint which may still be floating in the air. Lint which is removed from the air as soon as it has been blown off the textile machine may be collected and reworked with the resultant saving in material and the avoidance of the work of again removing it from the machine after it has had time to settle.

While a wide variety of materials may be used in constructing the boots of the present invention, it may be said in general that the prime requisites of the boots are that the air streams should not escape from the high pressure tube except through openings provided for that purpose, that is the air should not leak through or be drawn through the walls of the tubes.

Another consideration is that the tubes be susceptible of being made readily and inexpensively, for example as by sewing the parts together as at the several seams in the boots of FIGURES 1 to 6. The high pressure tubes may be made of fabric impregnated, or coated, with rubber and this material may be cut on the bias and wrapped around a form and the overlapping edge portions may be secured together in any suitable manner, as by cement or the like. The spiral means in the suction tube to prevent collapse of the tube may be a coiled metal wire or any other member capable of maintaining the tube in its initial shape when suction is applied to the interior thereof.

Having thus described this invention in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, and having set forth the best mode contemplated of carrying out this invention, I state that the subject which I regard as being my invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in what is claimed, it being understood that equivalents or modifications of, or substitutions for, parts of the above specifically described embodiments of the invention may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in what is claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for use in textile machine cleaning comprising an elongated boot adapted to be attached at its upper end to a device for simultaneously creating streams of air moving vertically in opposite directions at relatively high and low pressures, said boot defining vertical, parallel, adjacent tubes for said air streams, the tube for the high pressure air having a plurality of longitudinally spaced outlets to direct air streams toward a textile machine for removing lint therefrom at vertically spaced levels, the tube for the low pressure air having an inlet opening through which lint carrying air may flow, said low pressure tube having means to prevent collapse thereof when a stream of low pressure air is flowing therein.

2. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the boot is composed of flexible bendable material.

3. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the tube for low pressure air is disposed within the tube for high pressure air and projects through and is connected to the lower end of the latter.

4. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the boot is provided with a longitudinally extending partition partly defining said tubes.

5. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the tubes are formed separately and connected together.

6. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the means to resist collapse of the low pressure tube is in the form of a spiral member constituting a part of the tube wall.

7. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the low pressure tube has a corrugated outer surface tand in which a smooth surface member is attached to the lower part of said tube to facilitate sliding of the tube over an obstruction with which the boot might come into contact.

8. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the low pressure tube is provided with vertically spaced inlets.

9. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the high pressure tube has a plurality of vertically spaced nozzles and the low pressure tube has a plurality of vertically spaced inlets positioned in the vicinity of said nozzles.

10. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 an which the low pressure tube has an inlet near the 11. The combination of elements set forth in claim 4 in which a thin, wide, long slat is disposed in the said partition.

12. The combination of elements set forth in claim 1 in which the collapse resisting means includes stiffening means secured to the low pressure tube.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,245,629 Smith Nov. 6, 1917 1,463,583 Holleran July 31, 1923 1,892,751 Smith Jan. 3, 1933 2,263,070 Ousick Nov. 18, 1941 2,621,075 Sedar Dec. 9, 1952 (Other references on following page) 6 UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES 2908029 Furst 1959 Advertisement in Textile World, page 91 of the Parks F REI N TEN Cramer Company, March 1957. 1 034,25 France Id 7 1954 5 Parks Cramer Co. Advertisement #411,11ub1ished Sept.

1,178,165 Fnance Dec. 8, 1958 25, 195 PP-, p g 4 i 

